


it was the tarot thing, probably

by mimimini



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Developing Friendships, Gen, mark and donghyuck are the same age here, probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 14:58:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15754065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mimimini/pseuds/mimimini
Summary: Mark and Donghyuck become friends after a rocky start. That's it. That's the story





	it was the tarot thing, probably

**Author's Note:**

> A mutual on twitter lamented that they couldn’t find a fic where the characters become friends and don’t fall for each other, ever, so I wrote this. That said, they’ll probably never know since I, for sure, don’t have the confidence to tell them “here, this is for u” as it would be like when your cat brings you trash as a present.  
> I'm not a native English speaker and I tend to mix up British spelling with American English vocabulary so uhm. Yeah. The setting for this fic is a mystery even to me, don’t think about it too hard.

Mark and Donghyuck's first meeting was, in fact, a disaster.

They had had friends in common for years, but somehow, they had never met until then, only hearing from their common friends about each other's antics. To be quite honest, Mark wasn't eager to meet him, because Donghyuck sounded like the kind of person Mark didn't click well with. Someone very touchy-feely, outgoing and extremely self-confident. Mark was awkward at best. But he could see his friends loved him deeply.

 

It was summer, it was melting hot, they were a bunch of junior high school students, and Mark's ice cream landed on Donghyuck's favourite t-shirt with a beautiful _splat_.

Donghyuck slowly bent his head to look at the mess on his t-shirt.

"Uh. I'm so sorry," Mark tentatively apologised, frozen in place.

Donghyuck took a sharp breath. "It's okay," he muttered and headed to the toilet.

 

It wasn't okay.

It wasn’t definitely okay and Mark was sure of it because Donghyuck was eyeing him murderously. What he wasn’t sure of was if the hatred had been caused by his tripping on his own feet while being stupid with Yukhei and sending his ice cream on Donghyuck’s favourite shirt, or because Mark had apparently offended him with his totally uncalled for jab at people interested in tarots and witchcraft and astrology and all that stuff Mark found very funny and slightly stupid looking when they passed by a store selling witchcraft stuff. Probably the latter.

 

And yet, somehow, their friends managed to leave them on their devices for a good ten minutes while they were at the bowling alley.

“Uhm,” said Mark, always having a way with words.

Donghyuck sent him a death glare.

“I’m really sorry about earlier.”

Donghyuck’s Michael Jackson shirt still had a very huge brownish shape right next Michael Jackson’s head.

“It’s okay,” Donghyuck replied, his mouth forming a straight line.

They stood there in silence until their friends came back.

 

“That was fun,” Yukhei commented enthusiastically on their way back, after his mom had picked him and Mark up with her car. “We should do it again!”

“Totally,” Mark started sweating.

 

 

After a lot of miserable and awkward outings with their friends, somehow everyone ended up convinced that Mark and Donghyuck had hit it off quite well.

Mark wasn’t of the same opinion.

It was true that Donghyuck didn’t mention the ice cream or tarot incident after that time, and he looked quite amiable, but he was sure that, under that pretense, he was still going for Mark’s life. He felt Donghyuck’s eyes boring holes in the back of his head, constantly. Donghyuck would suddenly grab Mark’s shoulders or arm or hand—all that aggressiveness had to mean something, Mark reasoned. He was getting a little scared.

 

When he finally confessed his fears to Yukhei, his friend looked at him like he had started talking in fluent German out of nowhere.

“What do you mean you think he hates you?”

“What do you think that means? He totally hates me. Don’t you see how he acts around me? Like the next time he hugs me he’s going to try and choke me to death.”

“I think you’re misunderstanding him,” Yukhei furrowed his eyebrows. “I’m pretty sure he finds you amusing. Like everyone else.”

Mark groaned.

 

It was high time he confronted Donghyuck, and the next time their friends all gathered, he willingly let the others walk ahead while Donghyuck was _aggressively_ linking arms with him.

“Donghyuck,” he started, worried for his arm. “Do you hate me?”

“What? No. What do you mean?”

“Is that the reason why you always look at me like you want to kill me in my sleep?”

“Uh?”

Donghyuck let go of his arm, looking genuinely confused. Mark was starting to be as well.

“That’s not…?”

They had stopped walking, staring at each other as if they both had just grown a nose on their forehead.

“Look, I’m sorry about the ice cream. And the tarot stuff. So…”

“I’ve been thinking this the whole time but…” Donghyuck cut him off. “Didn’t we go to kindergarten together?”.

“What,” Mark’s eyes widened.

“Didn’t you go to…” Donghyuck mentioned what was, in fact, the place Mark had attended. “I don’t remember well, but before I moved, I think we were in the same class.”

Mark gaped at Donghyuck.

“I don’t hate you,” Donghyuck continued. “I just couldn't figure out until, like, five minutes ago why you looked kind of familiar when I thought I had never even seen a picture of you.”

“Although I was very pissed that time our friends introduced us,” he added, a pointed look.

Yeah, it was probably the tarot thing.

 

High school was fun until it wasn’t, but one good thing about it, Mark had to admit, was Donghyuck. It was the first time they went to the same school after kindergarten, and it was almost hard to believe now how awkwardly their friendship had started. They spent most of their time outside classes together, either studying or killing time together doing stupid stuff.

Donghyuck would constantly glue himself to Mark, and Mark would try to escape from him and his constant need for skinship, but it was more of a game than anything and, from time to time, he let Donghyuck hold his hand or back-hug him or cuddle him or whatever he was trying to do, because Mark wasn’t good at showing affection to his friends, but it didn’t feel bad doing that from time to time.

And, from time to time, their friends would ask if there was something more to it.

 

“What do you mean?” Mark asked, confused, as Donghyuck pretty much tackled him on the sofa.

They were at Yukhei’s for a movie night.

“You really never thought about trying to date each other?”

Yukhei’s incredulous tone made Mark even more confused.

“…no?” he replied.

“Scoot off,” Donghyuck chimed him, his attempt at tackling Mark gloriously backfiring as he ended up with Mark half-sitting on Donghyuck’s stomach.

“Gladly,” Mark hummed, and then shifted his position to crush Donghyuck even more under himself.

 

Their next movie night was scheduled to happen at Mark’s, but a snow storm hit the town in the early afternoon, completely blocking the traffic. Donghyuck had been at Mark’s since the previous day—his parents were out of town for a week and Mark’s parents had kindly offered to make sure he was well fed in the meanwhile—so, after the others called one after another to announce they couldn’t make it, Mark and Donghyuck looked at each other, sitting on Mark’s bed.

“More snacks for us,” they agreed, and made their way to the basement, where the movie marathons usually took place.

As they settled on the sofa, suddenly Mark had a déjà vu from their previous movie marathon, Yukhei’s words ringing uncomfortably in his head.

 

They were halfway through _The Princess Bride_ when the lights went out.

“I’m sorry!” Mark’s father shouted from upstairs. “I forgot we had the dishwasher on and microwaved some popcorns.”

They heard Mark’s mother’s irritated “I even told you to wait!” from her study, and Mark simply shouted something in acknowledgment. They waited a couple of minutes in the dark. Slowly, Donghyuck started slipping down, and after some shifting, Mark was pretty sure Donghyuck was laying down with his head on Mark’s thigh, although he couldn’t see him.

He could only hear their quiet breathing.

 

It took another couple of minutes and a few panicked “Honey!” from Mark’s father—Mark was pretty sure his mother was the only one in the house who knew where the fuse box was and, most importantly, what to do with that—before the lights came back.

Mark had guessed right.

Donghyuck looked up at Mark from his thigh, and Mark looked down at Donghyuck. His eyes fell on Donghyuck’s lips, and then went back up to his eyes. He knew Donghyuck had just done the same.

They looked at each other for a moment.

“Nah,” they sneered in unison, and went back to their movie.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry my friend (?) who will never read this, I can’t give you the enemies in a comedic sense who don’t solve anything fic or the hoseok & yoongi rekindled friendship fic you also asked for to the void of twitter. My brain fried just to write this…


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